Missing By Shelley Shepard Gray

I guess I should have read the tiny writing on the cover of the Playaway box BEFORE I started listening to this book. Although you practically need a magnifying glass to read it, it clearly says The Secrets of Crittenden County Book 1. Yes, there are two more books and I guess I will have to read all three if I want to know what happened to the missing, or in this case dead boy.

Missing takes place in a small Amish Community in Kentucky. The missing boy is Perry Borntrager, and until his body turns up at the bottom of an abandoned well, it was assumed that he had no longer wanted to be Amish and had simply run away. This people could understand, but a murder in Crittenden County? Now that was shocking!

The town Sheriff, Mose Kramer had been raised in an Amish family in Crittenden County himself, but had left the community to study Criminal Justice at The University of Cincinnati. When he was offered a job in his home town he was happy to accept the offer. He soon discovered, however that there were “complications in becoming sheriff in a town you grew up in.” He knew too much and people were just not willing to answer his questions. He was getting no where in his investigation of the Borntrager murder. Thinking that the towns people may be more willing to spill the beans to an outsider, he recruits his friend Luke to help with the investigation.

Luke could understand Mose’s frustration as he too felt that people knew more than they were willing to divulge. Everyone had secrets, but who had the key to solving the murder? First there was Abby Anderson, one of the three “Englishers” who discovered Perry’s body. Abby didn’t know why she was with these girls in the first place when she should have been in school at the time. She never felt like she quite fit in anywhere. Then there was Lydia Plank, Perry’s Amish ex- sweetheart. What was the real reason for their break up? And Walker Anderson, an Englisher who at one time was Perry’s best friend, although at the time of Perry’s disappearance they were no longer on speaking terms.

Missing is a mystery with a little romance thrown in and is an entertaining audio book. Each chapter opens with a quote about Perry, which I think is a nice touch. Although by the end of the book people were definitely starting to open up and secrets were revealed I still have no idea what happened to Perry. Book two is titled The Search and book three Found. The good news is that all three have been published. The bad news is that I have to read (or listen to) all three to find out “who dunnit!”.